LONDON: A 13-year-old boy who died after testing positive for the novel coronavirus, becoming the UK’s youngest virus-related fatality, was laid to rest without the presence of his family members as they were in self-isolation, it was reported.
Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab was buried in the Eternal Gardens at Kemnal Park Cemetery in Chislehurst, southeast London, on Friday, the newspaper Metro said in a report.
Ismail, from Brixton, south London, died alone at King’s College Hospital on Monday at 3:00 am.
He tested positive for coronavirus a day after he was admitted to hospital on March 26.
The teenager had no apparent underlying health conditions. It was understood his lungs failed and he had a cardiac arrest, the newspaper added in the report.
Family devastated
Ismail’s immediate family (mother and six siblings) was “devastated” because they could not attend the funeral as they were in isolation after his younger brother and an older sister began displaying symptoms of the virus.
“He was put on a ventilator and then put into an induced coma but sadly died yesterday (Monday) morning. To our knowledge he had no underlying health conditions. We are beyond devastated,” the family said in a statement.
An appeal
Mark Stephenson, a colleague of Ismail’s sister set up an appeal on website GoFundMe and raised fund for the child’s “janazah”.
A statement on the page said: “We at Madinah College would like to appeal to our brothers and sisters to donate generously to help raise £4,000 for the funeral costs and to support the family, who sadly also lost their father to cancer.”
It added: “May Allah grant the family patience through this difficult time and make it a means of drawing closer to Him.”
The UK has so far reported 38,690 coronavirus cases with 3,611 deaths.